Beyond Today: Empires On the Rise, What Does It Mean?

By United Church of God

Beyond Today Magazine -- March/April 2018 --
We are living in a world of massive change. As American power and influence rapidly recedes, previous major powers such as Russia, China, Germany, and even the Islamic and Ottoman Empires seek to regain their former might and glory. What’s behind the rise of these ancient empires? Does Bible prophecy give us understanding? What does it all mean? Be sure to read this issue carefully to better grasp where our world is heading and why!
Inside this issue
-- The Rise and Fall of Empires
-- Empires on the Rise: What Does It Mean?
-- Who’s Who in the Empires of the Bible?
-- America: The Diminishing Empire
-- Vladimir Putin: Rise of a Strongman
-- What Easter Doesn’t Tell You
-- From Glory to Glory, to Bring Glory to Man
-- Who and What Was Jesus Christ Before His Human Birth?
-- How to Live in Babylon
-- Stuck With Christ on Golgatha
-- Mini-Study: The Great Tribulation
-- Current Events and Trends
-- Letters From Our Reader

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781387628520

United Church of God

The mission of the United Church of God is to proclaim to the world the little-understood gospel taught by Jesus Christ—the good news of the coming Kingdom of God—and to prepare a people for that Kingdom. This message not only offers great hope for all of humanity, but encompasses the purpose of human existence—why we are here and where our world is headed.

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Beyond Today: Empires On the Rise, What Does It Mean?

The Rise and Fall of Empires

by Scott Ashley

We are living in a world of massive change. What does it all mean?

The walls of Constantinople defended the capital of the Byzantine Empire for more than a thousand years—a virtual eternity from a human perspective.

The Byzantine Empire was itself a continuation of the Roman Empire, which had Rome as its capital for approximately a thousand years before Constantine the Great founded a new capital at the site of a relatively obscure Greek city named Byzantium in A.D. 324.

Constantine named his new capital New Rome, and it soon became known as Constantinople, meaning city of Constantine. One of his first acts was to build strong defensive walls for protection. The city’s walls were greatly expanded during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II (408-450).

Theodosius’ defenses were formidable, involving a wide moat and three progressively stronger stone-and-brick walls, the last one 15 feet thick and rising 35 to 40 feet high, fortified by 96 towers rising another 50 to 60 feet. From each wall the city’s defenders could rain down on invaders arrows, spears, stones and blows from swords and axes.

For more than a thousand years—except for a brief conquest during the Fourth Crusade in 1204—invaders tried to breach the walls but failed. The walls stood against floods, earthquakes and armies. They were thought impregnable.

Until they weren’t.

The Byzantine Empire, like Rome and many other empires that preceded it, largely rotted out from within. It grew weaker and weaker as the lands it controlled shrank at the hands of Arab Muslims, Serbians, Bulgarians and finally, after a devastating epidemic of bubonic plague, by invading Ottoman Muslims led by Sultan Mehmed II.

After a 53-day siege, and with the aid of cannons capable of hurling 600-pound stone balls that could shatter brick-and-stone walls, the Ottoman hordes overwhelmed Constantinople’s outnumbered defenders and captured the city in 1453. A few escaped by ship, thousands were killed, and tens of thousands were enslaved or forcibly deported.

Mehmed II, better known to history as Mehmed the Conqueror, renamed the city Istanbul and made it the capital of his Ottoman Empire. The empire that had stood for more than a thousand years was no more. No other empire in human history has lasted so long.

A century ago World War I brought the end of the Russian, German and Ottoman Empires. In the aftermath of World War II, a financially devastated Britain found itself managing the decline of a greatly reduced British Empire. In more recent decades the world has witnessed the collapse of the Soviet empire. In recent years America’s decline in global influence has raised the question as to whether we will soon see the end of an American empire.

We are living in a world of massive change. As American power and influence rapidly recedes, previous major powers such as Russia, China, Germany, and even the Islamic and Ottoman Empires seek to regain their former might and glory.

What does it all mean?

In Daniel 4:25 and Daniel 4:32, we’re told that a spiritual dimension is at work in world affairs that can’t be seen with the human eye: The Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses (emphasis added).

The Hebrew prophet Daniel knew whereof he spoke. He lived in the last days of the kingdom of Judah, which met its end through invasion and exile at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire. Daniel then served as an official in Babylon until it, too, met its end at the hands of a new empire, that of the Medes and Persians.

Daniel then served them into his old age—having witnessed in his lifetime the rise of Babylon, the fall of Judah, the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire, and the fall of Babylon. And through divine revelations he learned of empires yet to come—Greece, Rome, and ultimately the greatest Kingdom of all, the Kingdom of God that will rule on earth without end after the return of Jesus Christ (Daniel 2:44-45).

Where are these trends taking our world? God knows—literally—and He promises us that He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding (Daniel 2:21).

You too can share in that understanding in the pages of Beyond Today. Be sure to read this issue carefully to better grasp where our world is heading and why!

Empires on the Rise: What Does It Mean?

by Darris McNeely

Will China overtake America and become a world empire? Will Russia restore the former might of the Soviet Union? Will Iran’s efforts to dominate the Middle East reclaim the ancient glory of the Persian Empire? And what about Europe–will it too see the return of an ancient power?

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Bible is the most important and most reliable source to study if you want to understand today’s world scene. In fact, it’s the most accurate road map to understanding the geopolitics of history and current events. Today nations are realigning and events are racing faster than geopolitical experts can discern. The reason so many fail to properly analyze today’s world is that they reject the Bible as a lens to understanding it.

This is shaping up to be a defining year for world affairs. Some major powers are making moves to ascend to greater strength while others are stumbling. We are in a moment

like that described in the biblical book of Habakkuk, where God told the prophet: Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you (Habakkuk 1:5).

The world is moving through what historians call an axial period when old orders fade and new ones take their place. The way we can understand what is occurring in our world is through a firm understanding of God’s view of history and His ability to guide the history of nations.

One way to look at the present world order is through the lens of empire—both old and new. We are 100 years from the end of World War I. The end of the Great War saw the collapse of the Russian, German, Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. The cost of the war and the toll of death crippled the British Empire and put it on a path toward slow decline over the next several decades.

Ironically, the war saw the United States assume a role in the world that only grew throughout the remainder of the 20th century until by 1991 it was the sole world superpower.  Today we see powers rising in the areas of these old empires and in Asia. If we are to properly discern our times with a right worldview, we have to adopt a biblical worldview. Only then will we begin to make sense of what we are seeing around us.

Let’s get an overview of what is happening now.

China’s competition with the West

Only the older generation remembers the time when made in China was a less-than-ringing endorsement of quality in manufactured goods. It’s different now. China makes quality goods and produces much of what is consumed in America and other parts of the world. China’s manufacturing base has fueled its growth into one of the leading nations in terms of gross national product and ranking in the world economy. China is the world’s manufacturing hub and one of the fastest-growing economies at near 7 percent a year.

It used to be said that when America sneezes, the world gets a cold. Now that could be said of China. The capitalist-style growth in China, though standing in contrast to its socialist-communist form of government, is recognized as vital. Keeping unemployment at manageable levels is critical to China’s social stability. Its large population requires continued levels of growth to maintain employment and incomes at satisfactory levels. The communist government’s continued grip on China depends on that.

China’s economic expansion has allowed it to build a formidable military, the most significant part being a navy that allows it to project power beyond its shores and rival America’s long-standing dominance in Asia. The Chinese want to see American power recede from Asia and to replace it with their naval forces. This will allow China to control the major sea lanes of commerce and wield considerable influence—if not outright control—over other powers like Japan or Australia.

China’s ambitions have been understood for a long time. It’s a rising power seeking to dominate not only Asia but other parts of the world. Because China holds a great deal of America’s debt, it poses a rising risk of being able to hinder American power. America’s position as a massive debtor nation is its Achilles heel that one day could overturn its longstanding dominance in world affairs.

China wishes to be the leading power not only in Asia, but on the world stage—and the one power